We revisit the “state-dependence” of the map that we proposed recently between bulk operators in the interior of a large AdS black hole and operators in the boundary CFT. By refining recent versions of the information paradox, we show that this feature is necessary for the CFT to successfully describe local physics behind the horizon — not only for single-sided black holes but even in the eternal black hole. We show that state-dependence is invisible to an infalling observer who cannot differentiate these operators from those of ordinary quantum effective field theory. Therefore the infalling observer does not observe any violations of quantum mechanics. We successfully resolve a large class of potential ambiguities in our construction. We analyze states where the CFT is entangled with another system and show that the ER=EPR conjecture emerges from our construction in a natural and precise form. We comment on the possible semi-classical origins of state-dependence.

In this paper we study segmented strings in AdS3 coupled to a background two-form whose field strength is proportional to the volume form. By changing the coupling, the theory interpolates between the Nambu-Goto string and the SL(2) Wess-Zumino-Witten model. In terms of the kink momentum vectors, the action is independent of the coupling and the classical theory reduces to a single discrete-time Toda-type theory. The WZW model is a singular point in coupling space where the map into Toda variables degenerates.

We study evolutionary games on graphs. The individuals of a population occupy the vertices of the graph and interact with their neighbors to receive payoff. We consider finite population size, regular graphs, probabilistic death-birth updating and weak selection. There are two types of strategies, A and B, and a payoff matrix [(a, b),(c, d)]. The initial condition is given by an arbitrary configuration where each vertex is occupied by either A or B. The conjugate initial condition is obtained by swapping A and B. We ask: when is the fixation probability of A for the original configuration greater than the fixation probability of B for the conjugate configuration? The answer is a linear condition of the form σa+b > c+σd. We calculate σ for any initial condition. For large population size we obtain the well known result σ = (k + 1)/(k − 1), but now this result extends to any mixed initial condition. As a specific example we study evolution of cooperation. We calculate the critical benefit-to-cost ratio for natural selection to favor the fixation of cooperators for any initial condition. We obtain results that specify which initial conditions reduce and which initial conditions increase the critical benefit-to-cost ratio. Adding more cooperators to the initial condition does not necessarily favor cooperation. But strategic placing of cooperators in a network can enhance the takeover of cooperation.

Although random cell complexes occur throughout the physical sciences, there does not appear to be a standard way to quantify their statistical similarities and differences. The various proposals in the literature are usually motivated by the analysis of particular physical systems and do not necessarily apply to general situations. The central concepts in this paper—the swatch and the cloth—provide a description of the local topology of a cell complex that is general (any physical system that can be represented as a cell complex is admissible) and complete (any statistical question about the local topology can be answered from the cloth). Furthermore, this approach allows a distance to be defined that measures the similarity of the local topology of two cell complexes. The distance is used to identify a steady state of a model grain boundary network, quantify the approach to this steady state, and show that the steady state is independent of the initial conditions. The same distance is then employed to show that the long-term properties in simulations of a specific model of a dislocation network do not depend on the implementation of dislocation intersections.

We consider a discrete, non-Hermitian random matrix model, which can be expressed as a shift of a rank-one perturbation of an anti-symmetric matrix. We show that, asymptotically almost surely, the real parts of the eigenvalues of the non-Hermitian matrix around any fixed index are interlaced with those of the anti-symmetric matrix. Along the way, we show that some tools recently developed to study the eigenvalue distributions of Hermitian matrices extend to the anti-symmetric setting.